Good Time
by Aspendragon
Summary: When an accident sends her back in time, Audrey has to learn to cope with her half Romani origins when race is all that stands between the noose and freedom on both the sides of the fair-skinned and Gypsy. Disney-based A Clopin story
1. Chapter I Aud the Odd

**Good Time**

_A Hunchback of Notre Dame fanfic_

Aspendragon

**Note:** _This is just an experiment on how well I can interpret European history and twist modern day France. There will be Disney references throughout the story and the settings may be confusing, but I'll try my best. Right now, I'm not focusing any of my interests on a possible Clopin/OC story. If it seems it is going in that direction at any point during the plot, I will try and make it as realistic as possible (I'm going to challenge myself) and the outcome might not be what the reader is looking for (if you're a happily-ever-after type that is.) Personally, I don't see Clopin as a one-girl kind of guy, so any attempts at pairing my OC up with him might be futile if I ever decide to do it. But alas, I can try right? It's not like my OC for this story is blonde, fair-skinned (or anything resembling the likes of me in any way) and totally unnatural for what this story may unfold to be. Since I've been thinking up this whole story in my head for a couple of weeks now, it's completely for me, so if you review, dear reader, and decide to bash it - please refrain, criticize it and make sure you explain your reasoning – oh! If I make grammar/spelling mistakes, PLEASE tell me, I've been abusing my English lately…anyway, on with the story!_

**Chapter I**

**Aud the Odd**

_June 1996_

"_Kyrie Eleison…"_

_Lord have mercy…_

Confetti broke out of small tubes and various animals dressed up in odd costumes littered the vast town square before the cathedral of Notre Dame. Colorful flags hung from strings that ran from one tent to another, beneath them were people walking on their hands, dressed as dogs walking other people by leashes, there was even a large bug net with a person attired as a butterfly inside hanging from a large pole.

It was early in the afternoon, the square was busy with excitement, but their festivities had only begun.

One girl, her skin darker and lighter than most with mischievous gray eyes, was frolicking through the bustling crowd. Her feet were bare and in her right hand was a tambourine. Following her was a border collie, around her neck was a flimsy collar strung with bells.

"Dance! Mala!" the girl cried as she came to a halt when they reached a small clearing. The collie, Mala, rose to her hind legs with front paws gathered at her chest. Bouncing around on her back paws, the passing crowd stopped to watch with smiles on their faces.

"Spin!" again, the girl shouted as she gave a quick twirl of her own with the tambourine raised, her long skirt sweeping against the ground. With a swift, small kick off the ground, Mala did a turn of her own. She continued doing that in rhythm with her human counterpart, except she spun in the opposite direction. The crowd watched and praised and whistled, the girl's bright smile lit up at the cheers.

After a few more bouts of light dancing, the girl and dog came to a stop gracefully and bowed.

"If you would please ladies and gentlemen, see my full performance on stage later this afternoon! Please enjoy yourselves and celebrate this day of the Feast of Fools!" With that, the girl vanished behind a tent flap, followed by her loyal collie.

"Whew," she puffed, Mala's wagging tail drooped as she sat down for the first time since that morning.

Now she had about an hour to rest before making her grand entrance before last year's King of Fools. The main idea of it had been…how do you say…updated? The medium-skinned girl sighed, although not unhappily. She loved her job, she wouldn't still be pretending to be a gypsy girl if she didn't. Mala nuzzled up in a corner where her large pillow bed sat, not even waiting to have her custom-made collar removed.

"Good idea Mala, but don't stay down for too long, you'll stiffen up."

"Had fun?" a new voice spoke up, it was the newbie entertainer – Raul Charnock. He made his entrance from another tent and into theirs. Polar opposite to the girl in appearance with his blonde, soft curls and baby-blue eyes , he made a spectacular addition to the Fools cast.

"Bored?" the girl asked in response, Raul smirked lightly. Horribly vain, Raul allowed girls to drool over him when he made his appearance in the festival as a _Captain of the Guards_. When he wasn't dressed in the old century get-up, his upper torso was draped in a loose, dark-colored shirt with a low curve to it that allowed anyone to briefly see the top of his taut pectorals. Below that, normally black slacks and boots.

A typical pretty boy that had a fondness for challenges.

"Maybe," he remarked smoothly as he made himself comfortable in a nearby chair. "I must say, Aud, you're a strange dancer."

Aud, or preferably Audrey, frowned. She saw what was coming.

"Haven't we already had this conversation?" She sometimes didn't understand why he picked on her, especially when she considered him a (sort-of) friend. Whenever she started thinking he was being exceptionally sweet, he would backfire and let loose a smart-ass comment or flirt with the nearest thing with a uterus.

"Maybe," he repeated, Mala left her bed and strode over to Raul, he welcomed her as she welcomed him. Audrey inwardly growled as Mala allowed him to scratch her ears.

_Bite him,_ Audrey thought in hopes of the order flying magically into her dog's head. But alas, Mala gazed up dreamily as her floppy ears flopped back and forth. Raul chuckled under his breath, probably guessing at Audrey's thoughts.

"Guess what," chirped Raul, Audrey raised a brow as she took a seat in another chair.

"Luc is sick," he replied, Audrey's jaw nearly dropped.

"What?" Luc was one of the head entertainers for the King of Fools later on, he had a major role that required a lot of teamwork with the other entertainers. If he was sick, then most of which they all practiced might have been to no avail.

"Don't worry though," Raul began, Audrey's stomach dropped.

"You're his replacement," she finished, Raul grinned.

"Isn't it great! Now _you_ can see _me_ in my fabulous knight outfit up close!" Audrey looked away.

"More like a geek in tinfoil…" she hissed underneath her breath, Raul's face went bland.

"What was that?"

"You heard me – Tinfoil Geek!"

"Oooh, original," he teased, Audrey resisted rolling her eyes.

"You know everything there is to do right? Wait, whose going to take your place?" Audrey knew the scripts of the Feast by heart, missing characters were big boo-boos.

"Apparently, Gabriel taking over." Replied Raul, Audrey's mind ran into a flashback…

* * *

"_C'mon Gabe! It's just a little log!" Cried a younger Audrey, her dark brown hair tied back in a messy braid. She was on a horse, her reigns grasped tightly in her hands. She waited for another boy on his horse to join her further along the trail, but the horse was antsy due to his rider's novice abilities._

"_Um, um, c'mon…er…horsey…" muttered the weak-hearted boy, he must have been around Audrey's age, but couldn't hold a candle to her confidence._

"_Remember the lessons, Patrick's fine, just squeeze his sides. It's not like you're gonna jump it…" Audrey trailed off, waiting for Gabriel to gather some courage. He wasn't the greatest around horses, but his father was adamant about Gabriel refining this particular skill for some reason or another._

_Audrey figured it had something to do with Gabriel's father owning the best horse stables in France._

"_You can do it," Audrey was quickly losing patience and her voice was proof enough of it, gulping, Gabriel closed his eyes and kicked Patrick's flanks._

"_Don't KICK you-" too late, Audrey realized, as Patrick gave a snort before barreling over the thin fallen tree then racing past her and her mare.

* * *

_

Audrey remembered cantering after him and by the time Patrick had slowed down, Gabriel was more paranoid than ever around horses. Personally, she believed he should just keep to his bug-collecting hobby. Yet thankfully, he gained an interest in card tricks and discovered a hidden talent. From pulling quarters out from behind peoples ears to sawing victims in half, Gabriel became a magician.

But where the heck did he come in as a _Captain of the Guards?_ Was he just going to walk around with a horse in tow? Sure, as of recently he had tried taking up horseback riding again, but wasn't this a little too early to test how far he has come? During the main event no less?!

Raul shrugged.

"Julius thinks it'll be okay," he said, Audrey sighed heavily.

"Of _course_ he thinks it'll be okay!" Audrey cried, "he's probably planning for Gabe to fall and – _gasp!_ Julius is going to have Gabe make a fool out of himself isn't he? For laughs!"

Again, Raul shrugged.

"Beats me,"

"You're useless!" Audrey snarled as she got up and grabbed an outfit that had been lying harmlessly folded on a small, weather-beaten trunk. She made toward Mala's bed then pulled a curtain from the side to the adjacent wall. Raul and Mala sat on the other side as she changed.

"Don't forget to take out your earrings," Raul reminded her in a teasing tone, Mala's tongue lolled from out of her mouth. Audrey huffed from the other side of the curtain and Raul chuckled again.

"I will never forget Julius' expression when you came out on your horse with part of your other gypsy costume still attached-"

"Shut up! He still gives me the _eye_! In fact, he was doing it out there while I was dancing!" Audrey confessed.

"Probably was looking for pants underneath your skirt," inquired Raul, Audrey poked her head out of the curtain to glare at him, her cheeks slightly red.

"Bull! The man's practically my father!" Audrey snapped before vanishing back behind the curtain. Mala walked away from Raul when he stopped scratching her ears, she too disappeared behind the curtain to probably lay back down again. Raul couldn't resist the bait.

"How's the view Mala?" Raul asked, he heard a distinct puff from Audrey as she tied her loose, beige shirt on followed by gaudy beads.

"You tell me, Raul," Audrey said as she pushed the curtain back to where it was. Raul remained stoic as he eyed Audrey, he had seen her in the outfit before, but she still looked great in that long, purple skirt that cinched at her waist…

"No different then last time," he replied, Audrey frowned as she paced over to a life-size mirror, she toyed with her sides, measuring them with her palms. Raul gave her the decency of privacy by looking away at the antique trunk.

"I hate love handles…I can't get rid of them…" he heard Audrey talking to herself, her fingers pinching the flesh he couldn't see under the shirt just above her hip bones. Raul rolled his eyes, smiling slightly.

_Why were girls so obsessed with being skinny?_

"Mother doesn't have any…neither did Grandmama or Great Grandma…" Raul almost asked how she would know this considering Audrey hadn't seen her mother in years, but clamped his mouth shut. Julius informed him the first time he came to be a part of the cast that a lot of the performers had touchy pasts and weren't on display to be questioned about. Raul wasn't one to speak of when it came to warm family bonds either, but at least his parents were accepting when he decided to join the merry band of misfits…

Or at least, _he _considered his co-workers as a bunch of misfits. Audrey was so-nicknamed Aud the Odd because of her habit of speaking to Mala and dipping her french fries in chocolate milkshakes before eating them, not to mention the other odd tendencies that made the list. Yet he didn't really criticize her, she spoke to Mala as one would a friend and in return, they were like two peas in a pod. Not to forget their excellent performance ratings!

"Quit it," Raul said as he snaked his way over to her, grabbing her hands and pulling them away from her sides. Noticing what he was doing, he quickly released her and stepped back, she turned to look at him curiously. "You're fine the way you are,"

Audrey gave him a suspicious look.

"Is someone crushing on me?" she asked in a playful tone, Raul smirked.

"Only if you'll be envious if I flirt with other girls," he said, it was Audrey's turn to smirk.

"Right, what's there to be envious of? It's not like they flirt back," Audrey retorted, Raul pretended to be hurt.

"Ouch, ma chérie," he cried softly, Audrey fought back a soft burn to her cheeks again.

"Come on Mom! The show's going to start soon!" a child cried as he dragged his mother toward where the event would take place on the outside of the tent. Both Raul and Audrey tensed up.

"What _time_ is it?" asked the girl, Raul rolled back one of his sleeves to peer at a small watch around his wrist.

"About one forty six," he replied, his eyes widened.

"_One forty-six-_"

"_Seven!_" Raul suddenly corrected as he ran out the way he came, leaving Audrey to hurry and locate her riding boots and hair tie.

"Hurry Mala!" Cried Audrey as she tied her last boot then ran out of the tent through the back to avoid the crowd, Mala ran out after her.

Five seconds later, Audrey came back in with Mala right behind.

"Crap," she muttered as she unsnapped the collar from Mala's neck to replace it with a shiny, violet normal-looking collar and matching boots around her pasterns. A single bell was strung to the back of each band.

"All right, we're good?" a quick scan around the place reminded Audrey to grab Mala's neon frisbees, "we're good! Let's go girl!"

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen! Come one and come all! To the big event of the month!" A cheerful host dressed in colorful garb cried, his mask hiding his true face. He bounced around on top of hydrants and off of lamp posts as people began to gather toward the towering Notre Dame.

"Today isn't just _any_ day of the Feast of Fools! We are crowning a new king – so to speak – and you're all invited to discover the ugliest mug of all Paris!" Children cheered and adults laughed with and at one another, teasing their friends about the position.

From backstage several yards away, the performers could hear their host's voice magnified by his attached microphone.

"Let me tell you a tale I'm so sure you have heard before – but alas, I must tell you all again lest you forget – the story behind this amazing festival!" as if anticipating this, many of the tourists and perhaps some residents of Paris went silent as they peered at the harlequin host.

"Long, loooong ago, our festival was celebrated _once_ a year!" expecting a reaction, the host trailed off and in response, several listeners gasped. This seemed to satisfy the host as he continued. "By most of our ancestors they came together to throw a grand party for the pheasants of Paris!"

* * *

"Throwing in a bit of accent isn't he?" Audrey whispered with amusement, her co-performers sniggered in agreement.

* * *

"Yet their happy time was not to be, as came along Judge Claude Frollo-" boos sounded through the audience as the harlequin host jumped atop a saddled donkey, the animal didn't even seem to take notice of the added weight. "-he was a dark man who saw evil all around him! He attend every year, but did not enjoy the efforts of the gypsies that sought to entertain his dismal mood."

"It was then, one day, not on the Feast of Fools, did he capture four gypsies sneaking into Paris near our grand Notre Dame! Beautiful is she no?" he held a hand up for a dramatic effect toward the cathedral, children and adults alike stared up at in wonder. "One of the gypsies _ran_, the judge pursued her to the stairs of Notre Dame! On those very steps that gypsy's blood spilled and Frollo took in her deformed infant child to atone for his actions!"

"Yet now, my children, the child was henceforth named Quasimodo – meaning half-formed for his hideous face and hunchback! For twenty years the Feast of Fools rained joy on Paris once a year and on every day it came, Quasimodo watched from above in his sanctuary in Notre Dame as her bell ringer! Because Frollo deemed him a monster, he wished not for our eyes to see him! Then on a day he dared venture beyond his sanctuary, was a day the very festival was in town that is being celebrated here and now!"

* * *

"I have to give him a lot of credit, I can't remember past the 'come one and come all'," admitted Audrey as she took a peek between the curtains to watch their host bounce through the crowd toward the wooden platform.

* * *

"On a day very much like this one a man with a hunched back and deformed face became the King of Fools! In his honor! We will crown the five-hundredth and thirtieth King of idiots and scoundrels alike!"

"What happened to Quasimodo?" one new spectator asked, his eyes big and age around ten.

"Ah-ha! I'm glad you asked!" as the host went into elaborate detail about the rest of the famed Quasimodo's tale until he rescued the gypsy, Esmerelda and brought her to the sanctuary of Notre Dame, the performers were getting ready.

"King of idiots and scoundrels alike? Are you ready?" asked Audrey, looking over at a man from last year who appeared no less drunk than he had been then. She rolled her eyes, he was the least favorite of the whole event just because they had to deal with his atrocious smell of alcohol while the harlequin host ranted.

"Yep – _burp! Hic!_" The man replied, Audrey's nose scrunched in disgust.

"Now folks! Allow me to ask before we begin our show! Bring out your ugliest faces – but think carefully! Does that make them man? Or monster?" Before anyone could reply, the host disappeared in an instant smoke affect, in his absence came the small cast of pre-performers. From before were the dogs walking the humans, the cook in the lobster pot, a mule walking backwards, but when they walked off stage they left in their wake – Audrey.

Without a word, she ran about the stage. On her tiptoes with her hand over her eyes, she peered out at the crowd. She ran across the platform, again to no avail.

"What are you looking for?" a young girl cried, Audrey feigned distress as she bit at her nails nervously.

"Has anyone seen my dog?" Audrey suddenly asked as she continued to look about nervously. The audience started to look around, not sure if she was seriously looking for her dog or seriously acting as if she lost her dog.

"Is that her?" another kid cried as Mala bounded up on stage from the side, her five neon frisbees stacked on her head. The crowd laughed and applauded as Mala balanced the frisbees easily before approaching her owner, her tail wagging happily.

"There you are Mala! You kept them waiting!" Audrey scolded lightly as she took the frisbees from Mala's head, the collie's tail stopped wagging as she looked over at the gathered crowd, she peered back up at Audrey and gave a whine.

"Don't make up excuses! You apologize! Don't beg for forgiveness either!" Audrey demanded, giving the audience a side-glance, Mala walked a few steps toward them till she could lay down to where her paws dipped off the sides. She gave the crowd her best puppy eyes with a small whine that made their hearts melt.

"I told you not to beg!" snarled Audrey as Mala quickly got to her paws, "you'll just have to make up for your tardiness with extra hard work! Fetch!"

Making her throws short so as not to push Mala over and off the platform, the crowd 'ooed' and 'awed' and clapped as the collie made twists and turns in midair as she dove for each neon frisbee. As a couple of minutes ticked by, Audrey shifted to tricks to humor the crowd before the plot for their onstage play fully began.

"Soldiers are coming, Mala!" Audrey joked as the collie suddenly went to lay on her side in imitation of death. Audrey huffed, obviously this was Mala playing dead, so there weren't any soldiers actually coming.

"_All_ the way dead, Mala," Audrey ordered curtly, the audience chuckled as Mala's paws flew into the air. Audrey whistled and Mala assumed her position once more on her paws to head back to the girl.

Then the platform began to shake as according to plan.

Audrey gasped as soldiers came onto the platform, she was so surprised she didn't realize that Mala assumed her 'play dead' trick beside her. The audience laughed out right at Mala's actions, as the soldiers approached Audrey the girl put her hands on her hips.

"Let's go Mala," she cried, but stopped short when she found her dog was lying down with her paws in the air. Audrey slumped as the new captain of the guard, Gabriel approached her, the accompanying horses were not on the platform, but on a clear space beside it.

"Gypsy, what are you doing stealing money from these poor pheasants with your black magic tricks?" Gabriel's voice was deep for someone of his timid nature, therefore all uncertainty was covered up through his baritone. Audrey huffed.

"Black magic tricks? And what do you mean _stealing_? I happened to have earned the money you speak of!" to prove this, Audrey revealed a worn hat that had been sitting beside her as Mala had been catching the frisbees. Gabriel frowned wickedly.

"Is that so? Then how else do you control your dog and make it perform such tricks – no animal is _that_ smart!" Gabriel made a move to take the hat from Audrey, but she dodged his grasp and made a run for one of the horses off the platform.

"Catch that gypsy!" Mala was on her paws again and had bit at Gabriel's ankle, in the process he tripped. As Audrey was about to make her fully-planned, and on multiple occasions practiced, bid for freedom by jumping off the platform and onto one of the saddled horses, something unfortunate decided to happen.

Gabriel, as he fell, had grabbed on to another soldier, that solder grabbed another and the next did the same. In a line resembling that of the domino effect, the last soldier bumped into Audrey as he proceeded to fall, knocking the girl off-balance and instead of falling into the saddle, Audrey instead grasped the smooth leather and the mane of the gelding.

In retaliation to the pain and discomfort he was feeling, before Audrey's feet could grace the ground, the gelding took off at a mad canter she had once seen before, but now was currently experiencing. The crowd parted as the horse paraded through, a terrfied Audrey dangling from the saddle. The soldiers on the stage were being laughed at, as if this was part of the show (and for those who had been there before thought this scene was just new.)

In reality, the performers were concerned. Some believed Audrey had such supreme horse riding skill she would manage to pull herself up into the saddle, reverse the horse back into their direction to finish the show and crown the new king. Yet they all watched as Audrey's form from the side of the horse grew smaller as it cantered through the empty space of the messy square.

Then finally, gasps sounded when they saw Audrey hit the ground and roll to a sickening stop while the horse galloped away into the streets of Paris...

* * *

With a grunt, Audrey felt a wave of pain explode through her forehead and tears pricked at her eyes beneath their lids. She went to move her arms and legs and felt her knees were a little torn up. Everything ached, including her eardrums that pounded against her skull.

"God…_damn…_" she moaned as she reached out to touch her head, only to feel her elbow pop and a sharp, agonizing pain burst from her arm. She hissed in anguish and agitation as no one came up to help her.

It surprised her enough to open her eyes to hear loud shouts of excitement and confetti bursting like it had been earlier.

Did no one see her fall? She was still inside the perimeter of the festival for crying out loud! Where the hell was Julius or Raul? Gabriel or Henri or somebody with a certificate in first aid!? She wanted to cry, but she hated making such a noise.

When she opened her eyes, everything seemed the same. Except the sky seemed bluer and the decorations appeared off.

"_Come one, come all!_

_Leave your loops and milking stools_

_Coop the hens and pen the mules_

_Come one, come all!_

_Close the churches and the schools_

_It's the day for breaking rules_

_Come and join the feast of ..._"

_Hold on, that doesn't sound like…_

"Fools!!!" Cheers followed and she felt confetti fall on her and somebody stepped on her foot.

…_the harlequin host I know!_


	2. Chapter II Proof

_Warning: L_ight adult theme!

**Chapter II**

**Proof**

_January 6__th__, 1481_

_Oh great,_ Audrey thought to herself as she tried to get up and off the ground, her elbow popped and tears sprung from her gray eyes. With a hiss she grasped her arm and nearly fell to the ground again when a large, boisterous man bumped into her from behind. In pain and frustrated, she spun around to confront him in all her fury.

However, in that second she was jerked away by her good arm to be twirled – rather painfully.

"Holy – _let go!_" she yelled and almost instantly the person who dragged her along came to an immediate stop.

"_Mes apologies mon ch__é__ri_," the voice wasn't kind, but it held a hint of sympathy when Audrey's momentum stopped. She snarled when the man took off before she could get a good look at him, seriously, where the _hell_ was she? This WAS Paris, but not the Paris _she_ knew!

"This isn't funny people – this isn't an act! I think my arm is broken!" through tears she was shedding out of agony and still under the impression she was still present in the Festival of Fools in 1996, Audrey nearly doubled over in pain and confusion when a soft hand pulled her away from the indifferent crowd.

"Come child, Clopin tells me you are in need of attention?" a firm, but warm feminine voice questioned as she led Audrey to a covered, bright violet tent. Funny, she didn't remember that tent being there, in front of that old-fashioned building…those were highly authentic by the way!

Pulling a flap open, the older woman dressed in a gypsy costume somewhat similar to Audrey's own when she danced in the streets before her performance with the knights and Mala.

Once inside the tent, Audrey made out several other curtains hanging off of rusted rings and several jolly, dark-skinned folk frolicking about. Gold hoops dangled in their ears, their hair black, occasionally dark brown or dusty blonde. They all bore colorful outfits, some of the women sported low fronts and busty physiques. The heavy-set women, such as the one leading Audrey toward a hay-based bedding of sorts, wore bandannas in their hairs and wore many jeweled rings on their chubby fingers.

"What is your name child?" the woman asked as she sat Audrey down on the bedding before inspecting her elbow, she muttered softly under her breath to herself. Audrey peered down at her elbow for what seemed the first time since she lifted her head from the cobblestone. It was heavily bruised and a great deal discolored in purple and blue.

"Audrey, yours?" she replied, the older woman, with a shock of black hair with strands of silver running through it, continued to mumble under her breath in what sounded like French. Audrey, knowing French herself, could hardly understand her. Yet the woman replied with a warm smile.

"Jozephine is my name, I am one of the crystal ball readers hm, but I have not seen you before ma chérie – whatever are you here for? In such attire too!" she eyed her boots the very same way Julius did when she had left her bangles and bells on for the stage performance. Audrey gulped as she watched her fish out a stiff, short wooden rod from a small trunk beside them. Next she pulled out a thick fabric and without actually looking, Jozephine grasped her arm and began to painfully maneuver it into a splint before slinging it.

Several times Audrey would cry out, usually around the times she tried to give her an answer, and she would hush her impatiently. By the time the sling was in place and Audrey's arm had almost gone numb from the treatment, did she manage (through light sobs) to answer.

"_Pardonnez-moi _Jozephine, but where are we?" in hopes of righting her confusion, Audrey's anguished mind tried to piece everything together. Had that fall made her loony? Nothing seemed as it had been before and if it was, Raul or Gabriel and most definitely Julius would have seen to her immediately, plus the crowd would possibly have been more caring.

Jozephine gave her a concerned look.

"Why, ma chérie, it is Paris! _Monsieur _Clopin was right to think you needed attention to not know that!" Audrey suddenly realized this woman was rather blunt and completely stunned.

"Um, how about the…year?" She couldn't help it, even with their modern record time of setting up the festival, Audrey knew (since no one bothered to move/aid her) no time had passed at all between falling and waking up. There was no time to change the décor of the festival!

"Fourteen-eighty-one, you must not be well, let me fetch you a drink, but I must hurry, I have customers!" Jozephine's voice had gone rather high as the sentence progressed before she scurried off into the havoc of the tent. Audrey remained where she was, the new information slowly sinking into the lower cavities of her brain.

_Fourteen-eighty-one? FOURTEEN-EIGHTY-ONE!!!_ Audrey broke out of the slight stupor the sting of reality had put her into, getting to her feet in a flash, she whipped her head around. Surrounding her were men and women, much darker than her in flesh and some much lighter, bickering back and fourth, opening wine bottles, getting dressed and undressed, exchanging jokes and chit-chat, her mind nearly couldn't comprehend her standing up! Even her breathing shortened.

By the time Jozephine had returned, Audrey had shakily returned her posterior to the hay bed, her form shivering as if she were sitting in a pile of snow. Jozephine sighed, almost motherly-like.

"I'm not sure what you have gone through, ma chérie, but drink this and get some rest. The ladies and men will not bother you now, we are all much too into earning our keep, you see?" Placing the drink beside Audrey on the trunk (now closed) she had gotten the stick to make her splint out of, Jozephine patted her softly on her shoulder before leaving the tent.

Not in the least bit feeling safe or secure, Audrey couldn't even nap. Her gray eyes scanned the room around her and even though she couldn't fathom how she would have traveled back in time, she eventually accepted this whole scene as a figment of her imagination.

But everything seemed so _real_, the way people could touch her, make her feel more pain, could this really just be a dream?

In the end – several minutes later – Audrey came to a decision. If this wasn't a dream, Mala would be around, her tail wagging and eyes big and swollen with concern for her partner in entertainment. The young woman peered around the room, anxiously searching out the collie with her frantic eyes. There was no bark, no lolling tongue, or intense, intelligent gaze anywhere.

She suddenly felt the doomed feeling of loneliness.

If this wasn't a dream, then she was alone here in the time of 1481, alone in Paris where persecution could not be justified fairly and the only language she could depend on was French (which thankfully she knew quite fluently.) Looking at the other people around her than down at herself, Audrey reasoned she could fit in well – for now.

Time flew by and Jozephine didn't return to check up on Audrey, the people in the tent would come and go – rapidly. She herself, would peer outside the tent, but would be tossed back and forth with a new wave of hurried performers to change clothes. She watched as people in dog outfits and other outlandish costumes parade in without consideration with big, sometimes toothless grins over a hat full of golden coins.

Cheers outside the tent eventually pulled her outside to watch the festivities, now that the pain had calmed down to a throb she could watch without being blinded by tears. She was, however, paranoid of becoming too close to the crowd that ignored her shouts for help earlier.

A man in a yellow and purple jester outfit jumped in and out of the crowd, upon the stage, and appearing upside-down in a faraway box decorated in gloomy fabric and banners.

"Pole dancer," she muttered when she saw him leap onto a tall, striped pole. He was singing away flamboyantly, all the while Audrey observed the face of the gaunt man sitting in the gloomy box several yards away. He had his arms crossed and his eyes were fixed on the energetic man, as if in great disdain.

Evading a drunk man that reminded Audrey strangely of the King of Fools back in her time, she spotted a bunch of dark magenta tents strung together, one held a sign that read '_Divination_.' She recalled how Jozephine had told her she read crystal balls and thinking she didn't have much to lose, made her way over to it. Maybe Jozephine would have something for her to do or have something to say that would make her feel better about skipping back more than four centuries.

"Ah, welcome – oh! Audrey!" Jozephine started, she took her good hand and took her away from the entrance, her fellow fortune tellers glanced up at the new arrival.

"Eh, Jozephine, who eez she?" a woman a little older than Audrey questioned in a snarl, Audrey faintly wondered if all the performers (however numerous they were) knew one another well enough to discern newcomers.

"Hush, Kristabel, hush!" Jozephine lightly reprimanded before turning her attention back to Audrey.

"If you have not the money to spend on the luxury of _divination_ my dear, you must not go wandering in – or on any other tent, no?" Jozephine lectured, Audrey nodded lightly, her head still worn out and she realized with each additional movement, her head was starting to hurt.

"Right, sorry," Audrey replied, though her French accent wasn't nearly as thick as Jozephine's, the woman, Kristabel seemed to take note of this.

"She eez not from _La France_! Why, listen to zat accent!" Kristabel stood up, her growing ire matching Audrey's when the man bumped into her from before. Though Audrey was not one to back down from a challenge.

"I am _too_ from _La France!_ _Vous ne pouvez pas vous avérer autrement! _(You cannot prove otherwise!)" Although the time periods were very different, Audrey knew well she was born in Paris, but had not become a resident since five years ago when she moved back without her mother. So of course, her accent wasn't nearly as that of a life-long native!

Kristabel, who was somewhat stunned from the vivid French tongue Audrey retorted with, scowled.

"Whatever you say," Kristabel replied, in the dark Audrey couldn't make out most of her features, but could tell she had clear, dark skin and luminescent black eyes. Her hair was a dark brown wrapped back in a star-printed scarf with gold hoops in each ear. Her front was especially low-cut and her breasts a cup larger than Audrey's, but the latter couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated.

The lust for blood was evident in Kristabel's eyes, she was _not_ happy with the coming of an outsider in their tent making friends with Jozephine.

Audrey huffed.

"I am not trying to be a problem," Audrey tried to reassure and lessen the anger in Kristabel before turning to the older woman who was standing by idly, her hands grasping the front of her maroon skirt. "You _have _ to believe me when I say I'm not from this – er – part of town, I'm lost."

She didn't know what else to say, Jozephine was the only being in this time she could call a friend (in some manner of speaking) and she desperately needed guidance. This world was completely new, where would she even start?

The older woman sighed, this time sadly before gazing up at Audrey with sympathic eyes.

"You are a Gypsy are you not?" Jozephine questioned, Audrey was taken aback.

"What? You mean am I Romani?" Thinking back on her history classes she was forced to take, Audrey recalled lessons on the catacombs of Paris. Those skulls didn't happen to just be placed on those stone walls, they were means of warning and peril to trespassers, especially against those who were invading a source of serenity – although no one knows for sure what remained hidden in the catacombs even in the year 1996…

"Are you or are you not?" Ire was suddenly evident in Jozephine's tone as well, she, Kristabel, and the other nearby (apparently) Gypsies were staring (or was it glaring?) in Audrey's direction.

"I am," well, that was half the truth, on her father's side she had Romani blood.

"Your parents' names?" another Gypsy woman from somewhere in the back burst out, Audrey gulped – giving her parents names meant nothing, but trouble since these people seemed to know every Gypsys' name in Paris! Then again, she didn't know the names of the Romani people who were bred into her family tree.

"I wouldn't know, I've never met them." Audrey quickly lied, pushing aside her guilty conscience, she was old enough to realize if she wasn't careful bad outcomes would result from it. Yet if she wasn't honest, what was there for her to fall back on in the future? In the end, she decided not to stray _too_ far from the truth.

"I'm nomadic," Audrey suddenly felt pride swell up inside her, she didn't know exactly where the idea came from, but she recalled from her classes the Romani and many other culture groups wove through Europe at some point. She wasn't really lying either, the Festival – when not performing for the Feast of Fools on January sixth – traveled across the country to perform!

Jozephine and the lot of fortune tellers gave Audrey a skeptical stare.

"Oh! What eez the name of your leader then?" Kristabel spoke up, Audrey felt her face lose color, her pride evaporating.

_Crapola,_ Audrey racked her mind with frantic haste, thankfully with the arrival of a new customer drove the attention away from her.

"Bonjour giiiirrlllsss…oh…" apparently the man made a mistake, with booze in one hand and the other clutching the flap of the tent's entrance, he peered inside as if expecting something else. Yet when his eyes landed on Kristabel's cleavage, he smirked and seemed quite happy with himself.

Audrey rolled her eyes then shook her head in disgust when Kristabel encouraged his behavior by slightly unlacing her corset.

"Bounjor monsieur," Kristabel greeted as the drunkard made his way past an unfazed Jozephine and plopped down across from the young woman.

"What's the price ma chérie?" Audrey had a pretty good idea he wasn't talking about a palm reading cost, her suspicions were confirmed when she spotted Kristabel batting her eyelashes at him. Funny thing was, Audrey observed, none of the other Gypsies were shocked by the behavior displayed by both parties. Jozephine and others simply seemed to have already forgotten her and their interrogation.

"Ah, whatever it eez you have in your pocket monsieur," Kristabel flirted, Audrey huffed. The two seemed to be a good fit, both as easy as the other. As the drunkard shifted his chair over to get closer to the woman, Kristabel did the same. Audrey glanced around the room – did the others expect the two to have sex right in front of them and not do _anything_ about it?

Audrey backed away a little, hoping to escape the tent before anything graphic began to take place and without drawing anymore questions her way. Yet when one Gypsey's chair went back to block her exit, Audrey resolved she would have to flee some other way and she was not crawling along the floor and under tables!

Meanwhile, over by Kristabel, as Audrey drew closer than she wanted, Audrey watched as Kristabel's right hand rummaged through the drunkard's side pocket in search of his purse.

One of Audrey's eyebrows rose into her hairline when she saw Kristabel manage to sneak a few coins out of his pocket, her face scrunched slightly into a frustrated frown as she stuck the coins into her skirt somewhere, all the while the man gave her a sloppy kiss on her forehead. Audrey couldn't see his hands and wanted desperately to cry out "hand check!"

But that would have been pointless and immature, considering no one would have gotten the joke in this century!

Audrey did one more glance around the room, she figured the only clear way to the entrance of the tent would be to scoot past the lovebirds and maneuver her way through the tall-backed chairs of the fortune tellers. That didn't seem appealing at all, seeing if they decided to back into her they could quite easily knock into her arm.

Um…ow?

Yet she didn't see anything other way and an idea sprang up into her head that seemed too good to pass up.

If they didn't want to believe her and her story, then she would convince them – in almost every sense, these people were ludicrously low on morals (pointed stare in Kristabel's direction) and didn't give a rat's ass about taking money or in taking advantage of people to gain it.

With a soft smirk Audrey normally display if she wasn't confident in something, she walked by the drunkard silently and where Kristabel was reattempting to take more money, Audrey swooped down and grasped the man's purse before she could. Locked down with the man's mouth nuzzling the side of her neck, Audrey stood over them triumphantly while pouring the money into one hand.

Hey, if she didn't take it, Kristabel would, besides, the man shouldn't be drunk witless, no?

_It's his own fault,_ Audrey thought wickedly, maybe he would think twice about drinking the next time. Yet she did hope he didn't have a poor wife and seven children to account for at home…then again, this should teach him something.

"Let's see…" _What the hell? I don't know this currency!_ Audrey decided to wing it again, she plucked one coin out of the small mound in her hand and flipped it into Kristabel's clutched hand, she just barely managed to catch it. Audrey put the rest of the coins in the man's purse that she now claimed to be her own.

Kristabel glared savagely up at Audrey, the latter shrugged.

"Don't worry, the pace you're going at now, you'll be getting more than money can buy anyway." Audrey turned to look at the others, swinging the full purse in full view, she left the tent.

"Hey – where's Bulky?" someone cried, soon after men began to race toward the _Divination _tent. Audrey looked at it, surprised.

_If she keeps it up, she might make up for her loss,_ Audrey thought, but she couldn't envision herself a prostitute.

_Damn,_ she thought, when she turned around she came face to face with a black horse pulling a carriage.

* * *

**A/N: **_Lol, Audrey isn't going to be one of those naive, innocent original characters and get this, she wasn't abused as a child GASP, original! Yay! Okay, yeah, I brought out some of Audrey's **darker** qualities, but I wanted to express she has some quirks and survival wits about her too. And I know, ENOUGH with the original cast of characters, get on with the HoND crew, yes, yes, I know I'm getting there. Frollo's next and NO, she will not be paired up with/engaged to/eloping with/flirting with/etc/etc/etc with him. That's just disgusting, although I adore how his personality was expressed in the film not to mention his voice actor chosen for the job was genius as well! I love my original characters, especially now that I'm creating them better and better with the years._

_Pay attention closely to Audrey though, her heritage is obviously important with her place in society, but you might notice something else (if you haven't already) about her lineage through her witty personality and joking manner. THIS IS BASED ON THE DISNEY VERSION! I ONLY SCRAPED THE BOOK WHEN I WATCHED WISHBONE'S VERSION WHEN I WAS YOUNGER! Whew, that was a loooong time ago._

_I miss Wishbone._

_Thank you for all those who reviewed! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the last and as much as I did in writing it!_

_On an extended note: I totally (unlike Audrey) know NOTHING about the French language, I'm using an online translator. So if anyone knows something is wrong and is semi- or fully fluent, would you mind helping me out? I took Spanish in high school, not French. _

_Over and out._


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